I'm new to the H20 and I'd appreciate any suggestions with a couple of problems.

1) When raising the roller fuling jib, I crank enough tension on the halyard to cause slack in the forestay, as I once did with H-16s. However, the tension on the halyard downstream of the upper forestay pulley causes the sail's luff wire (prior to the upper foestay pulley) to go slack too. Backing off the tension so to the point where there is no slack in the luff wire helps a little, but I still get "luffing" or in other words, the jib luff flaps when going to weather in a good breeze. Has anyone else experienced this or have any suggestions?

2) Everything I've read about downhaul tension suggests that I should crank it down pretty tight (I haven't read how to quantify how tight). When I crank down the tension with my 8:1 system, the comp tip section of the mast bends aft. Is this normal? Am I tightening the downhaul too much?

1) When I first started crewing the H20, we had a roller furling jib also. The only way to get good shape on the jib was to tighten the jib downhaul until the forestay was visibly unloaded. Even with the current non-roller furling jib we tension to about this level and haven't had any problems. If you are having trouble with your jib luff flapping while going to weather, you are not footing properly. Unless it's really your leach that's flapping, then you need to move your jib cars forward. If you have raked the mast back, this is a common problem and the solution is to move the jib cars forward of the mast rotation cleat. I like to verify the jib cars position by watching my jib tell tales during a tack and adjust until they break at the same time.

2) The downhaul tension is essentially adjusted for the conditions. Tight to de-power, loose to power. Some skippers like a little more tension than others, but you essentially want the wrinkles out of the main when going upwind and loose when going down. And yes, the comptip will bend if you do max downhaul. This is, in my opinion, one of the benefits of the comptip mast, allowing for easier de-powering during heavy winds and/or gusts. If your crew is watching, they can de-power the main during puffs and help you maintain speed.

1) The jib system on the 20 is not the same as the 16. It is not intended that the forestay on the 20 goes slack. Before setting the final tension on the jib halyard, you need to pre-tension the forestay. You do this by pulling the mainsheet tight to the approximate tension you'll be using on the water. You can use the main halyard to hold up the boom if you don't have the main up.

2) The downhaul can be run very tight. Yes the comptip is supposed to bend. You can pull the downhaul down until the foot of the sail reaches the black band on the mast. Use heavy downhaul tension in conjunction with heavy mainsheet tension in high winds to flatten the sail and depower the boat. This makes a huge difference and is the only way to sail the boat upwind when it's windy.

No, far too tight. You have the right idea though. Sheet the main and then set the jib halyard to the shape you want to see on the water, then add a little more as the boat moves it will "create" it's own wind so you need a little more than on shore. Too much will destroy the sail and/or pull out the corner grommets. If you are using the cleat, mark the line to see if it is slipping. If so, add a knot and/or change to better/bigger line or change to a better cleat or both...

If you put even moderate tension on the mainsheet, you'll never be able to pull the jib halyard until the forestay goes slack. You'll bust the jib halyard or wreck the jib first. The jib halyard on the 20 is not like the 16. The forestay is what holds up the mast, the jib halyard is only supposed to support the jib. So pre-tension the forestay using the mainsheet. Then tension the jib halyard somewhere in the range of slight luff wrinkles (low tension) up to no wrinkles with a slight inversion in the luff of the jib (high tension). My usual setting was to pull out the wrinkles and then just pull a little more.